Iran readies for campaign season

TEHRAN, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Roughly 70 percent of the applicants who submitted bids to take part in next month's Iranian parliamentary elections are cleared to run, the government said.

Abbas Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for Guardian Council, a constitutional authority, said 3,444 candidates are approved to run for seats in the 310-member Iranian Parliament, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reports.

More than 5,300 candidates submitted applications though an estimated 333 later withdrew for unspecified reasons. IRNA didn't provide details about the vetting process.

Campaigning starts Thursday and ends 24 hours before the March 3 general election.

Human rights groups accused Tehran of cracking down on opponents of the regime ahead of the March vote. Monday marked the first anniversary of the house arrest of main opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, two candidates in the 2009 presidential election.

Tehran has ignored urgent calls from the international community for the opposition leaders' immediate release.

Radio Zameneh, a Dutch broadcaster sympathetic to the Iranian opposition, said Internet access is restricted in Iran ahead of the elections. It says government officials have said search engines such as Google are working with the CIA.